[The 1950s] The Korean War began on June 25, 1950 and continued until 1953. During the war itself there were very few feature films produced; those that were tended to focus on raising morale for the war effort. By 1954 the industry began its recovery with the help of American-donated equipment, and by the late 1950s the film industry was booming. A large number of war films were produced at this time, primarily action films. Piagol (1956) is considered to be the most famous war film of the decade, and one of the classics of Korean film.

[The 1960s] The 1960s witnessed both the Golden Age of Korean film as well as increased interference in the film industry by the military government. A number of films from this period take a more humanist approach, focusing on the tragedies of war. Nonetheless filmmakers were constrained in how far they could go: popular filmmaker Lee Man-hee was arrested in 1965 and his film Seven Women Prisoners was banned for portraying communists in too-positive a light. In this manner the government utilized film as a tool for propagating its own views of the war and preventing alternative viewpoints from reaching the screen. An award was even established as part of the government-sponsored Grand Bell Awards to reward the most strongly anti-communist film of each year.

[The 1970s] The 1970s ushered in an age of much stricter government censorship, and in this environment, film censors indicated a clear preference for certain genres of films, namely: traditional costume dramas, films about adolescence, soft porn, and war films. These war films generally feature a simpler moral framework than the works of the previous decade, and they were crafted chiefly for entertainment purposes.

[The 1980s and 1990s] Most consider the 1980s to be a period of artistic renewal for the Korean film industry. Although censorship remained an issue, several complex and thought-provoking films opened up new, personal perspectives on the war, in particular Bae Chang-ho's Warm Winter was Gone, Im Kwon-taek's Gilsodom, and Lee Jang-ho's The Man with Three Coffins. A gradual loosening of government censorship starting in 1988 allowed filmmakers to cover topics that were previously off-limits, in particular: (1) the fate of leftist partisans from the South who fought for the communist army (Partisans of South Korea; The Taebaek Mountains); (2) critical portrayals of U.S. troop presence in Korea (Silver Stallion; Spring in My Hometown); and (3) sympathetic portrayals of North Korean soldiers (Shiri, Joint Security Area). Although financial pressures have replaced government interference as a key constraint on the filmmaking process, the past two decades have allowed for a more detailed and somewhat more balanced portrait of the war to begin to emerge.

Lee Kwangmo's debut feature about life in a small village during the war. Seen mostly through the eyes of a young boy, the film portrays the changes wrought by the war and by the presence of a nearby U.S. military base. The fighting itself remains offscreen throughout the film. In 1998, this became the first Korean film to screen in the Director's Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival.

Helmed by hit-making director Kim Tae Kyun (Volcano High, First Kiss), Crossing takes audiences into the human side of the North Korea issue. Inspired by a true story, the film follows a North Korean father and son who separately cross the border into China, and the difficulties they face trying to find their way back to each other. Leading man Cha In Pyo (Hanbando) and child actor Shin Myung Cheol movingly capture the emotional and physical trials experienced by North Korean refugees. Korea's official foreign-language film submission for the Oscars in 2008, Crossing tells a small story on a sweeping scale, conveying the strength of family and human spirit, and the tragic fallout of poverty and peninsula politics.

Poor but happy, North Korean coal miner Yong Soo (Cha In Pyo) ekes out a humble living with his wife (Seo Young Hwa) and young son (Shin Myung Cheol) in a small mining village. When his wife falls critically ill with tuberculosis, Yong Soo desperately sneaks into China in hopes of finding medicine to save her. Once over the border, however, Yong Soo discovers that there is no way back. Faced with many trials and dangers, he is taken farther and farther from his home and family. Back in North Korea, Yong Soo's wife passes away. Left alone with no one to turn to, Yoon Soo's son also crosses the border to look for his father.